Close ties in women's vault

Related coverage

Tatiana Grigorieva says she won't be distracted by her teenaged
niece in today's pole vault final at the Commonwealth Games.

Grigorieva, her 15-year-old niece Vicky Parnov and Commonwealth
record holder Kym Howe will all be seeking medals in the final
tonight at the MCG.

But Grigorieva, the defending Commonwealth champion, said she
would be able to focus solely on herself despite the presence of a
family member as a competitor.

"It's not our first competition together and I was able to
concentrate on my own jumps competing with her pretty well,"
Grigorieva said of the national titles in Sydney last month.

"Hopefully I will be able to do the same thing on Saturday.

"I definitely want her to do well, she's my family.

"It makes the competition more special and more exciting having
another family member there jumping beside me."

Parnov said her reception from the MCG crowd during yesterday's
qualifying was "crazy".

"It was really exciting, I never experienced anything like that
before," the Russian born teen said.

West Australian Howe is the gold medal favourite after setting a
new Commonwealth record of 4.61m at a meet in Canberra in
January.

Also chasing gold tonight will be Craig Mottram in the 1500m,
with the Victorian hoping to add to the silver medal he snared in
the 5000m on Monday night.

Australia's relay teams will also be seeking medals, with the
men's 4x400m team - featuring 400m individual gold medallist John
Steffensen - most favoured in the final track event of the
Melbourne Games.

Veteran triple jumper Andrew Murphy is also eyeing a medal in
the final of his event, while Jarrod Bannister, Oliver Dziubak and
Will Hamlyn-Harris will represent the host nation in the javelin
final.